


Salvage

by maya_brainstormed (mayachain)



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Batman: Arkham (Video Games) Setting, Bad Parenting, Batman: A Death in the Family, Choices, Gen, Jason Todd is (almost) Arkham Knight, Jason Todd is Robin, Kon-El | Conner Kent is Superboy, Rescue, Resurrected Jason Todd, Superboy thinks it is, Superboy's ears work, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27805156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/maya_brainstormed
Summary: Three times. Three universes. Superboy saves Robin.
Relationships: Kon-El | Conner Kent & Jason Todd
Comments: 5
Kudos: 65





	Salvage

I.

Abducted, tortured and brainwashed, a former Robin gets the chance to flee Arkham, and does. The whole thing is orchestrated by the League of Assassins – it’s a mass break-out – and when Talia finds him she frees him and offers him training once he gets better. He’s all set to follow her, except –

The minute he’s out of the cellar Joker kept him in, Superboy shows up. There’s mass break-out chaos and criminals all around but there Superboy is, and his eyes are only on Jason and no one else. “Come with me,” Superboy offers, and – Jason gave up all hope of Batman ever coming for him. Batman _replaced_ him. Jason gave up on Nightwing ever finding him – how could he, when Batman wouldn't – or any of the others. He can’t remember how many times he cried for Superman. For Kon. But – 

But.

He saw the walls and the steel doors. No Kryptonian could have heard him, but here is Superboy, Superboy showed up the second Jason’s heartbeat was no longer muffled by a lead line. Jason has been driven borderline insane, but he understands full well that this must mean Kon was listening for him.

So he looks towards Talia and thinks about the revenge that comes with her promises. _I can always train with her later,_ he thinks, because in the end he is tired, so tired, wounded and worn out from however long he was held and tortured.

“I can take you wherever you want,” Superboy says, Kon says, when he could have long since grabbed Jason and disappeared. “The Batcave, Titans Tower, Mount Justice –“ Jason vehemently shakes his pounding head against all of those – “Bludhaven, Star Labs, Keystone, Central City, the Fortress of Solitude –“ 

_Yes –_

And away they go.

II.

The Titans are off doing nothing in particular when suddenly Kon goes very still, tilts his head, and mutters: “Heartbeat? ...How can there be a heartbeat!?”

The other Titans are left staring at the spot where he just was.

He emerges in the graveyard where Jason is buried, and the grave looks normal, very wet, there’s a thunderstorm going on and there is mud everywhere.

The heartbeat is very loud.

There’s also screaming.

A blink of an eye and six feet of dirt and a coffin are nothing to a Kryptonian. (Or a half-human clone of one.)

It looks like Jason.

It’s still screaming.

“Hey, hey, Jason, it’s me,” Kon says, it must be Jason, the heartbeat is the same; however, clone!Roy’s and original!Roy’s heartbeats are not significantly different, and Jason was _dead_ , so who knows? But it’s Jason, _a_ Jason, and he’s in pain; whether he is the original somehow back alive or a clone or something else, that is all that matters.

 _Bring first aid kit to my location,_ he texts Bart. Half a minute later Bart appears with everything he could want, including a very much needed bottle of water.

Jason is startled out of his screaming by Bart arriving in a flash. He’s not all there, they can tell, but shit, is that an autopsy scar peeking out of that now ragged once extremely fancy shirt? Shit.

They share a look, both halfway to hysterical, only they can’t lose it, they have to keep it together for Jason’s sake, or whoever this person Kon just dug out of Jason’s grave is. Normally Bart would talk a mile a minute, but this has him stunned speechless, and yet they have been team mates for long enough that they don’t need too many words.

A blink of an eye, and they’re at the Tower and Jason is in a bed in the infirmary.

Their test confirms that this is Jason, their Jason, and the two Titans come to the conclusion that – 

“One of us really, really needs to call Nightwing.”

III.

Kon is floating above the ocean, trying and failing at letting the salty breeze lift him out of his funk. It was his own last minute decision to stay on Earth, on the off-chance that Superman would... He has nobody to blame but hims– 

There’s a cry.

There’s always cries, always, but that’s – 

That’s Robin.

That’s _Robin_ crying for help.

At first, as Kon hones in on the sound more closely, he only hears the boy calling for Batman. Kon frowns, sure that Batman will save him any minute now.

Any minute now.

Kon turns around in the air. _Where even is he?_ That way. He’s calling for Superman. Kon listens, waits. 

Superman doesn’t come.

Halfway across the world, the kid’s choked voice starts calling for Nightwing, and Kon is gone.

Nightwing is not on Earth. Little Robin must _know_ Nightwing isn’t even on Earth… right? He must know the Titans aren’t on Earth, that’s why he’s not calling for Superboy, right, because Superboy was supposed to be in space…?

 _To be fair,_ thinks Kon as he sights the coast of Africa, that “K- -” cut off by a sickening thud might have been meant as a desperate _“Kon!”_

Who cares.

Who cares.

Kon is here now. Kon is here now and has Jay and some woman out of that warehouse real quick.

Kon is here. He whisks them both back to Hawaii and that hospital where they know Superboy and won’t ask questions.

Leaves the Joker tied up with his own bent and bloody crow bar.

Gets them to put a guard on the woman since Robin is in surgery and Kon doesn’t know her.

Sits at Jason’s bed and listens to the ventilator breathe and doesn’t – 

doesn’t – 

doesn’t call either Bruce or Clark.

_Fuck._

_Guardians._

.


End file.
